Thoughts on the New MI Smoking Ban
Awesome:
Without thinking about the implications, I ate dinner at two different bars Saturday and Sunday. One meal convinced us we have a new regular local place to eat (Tap Room).
None of the bars stunk in the first few hours of the ban. Having worked in bars for years (and contracting asthma as a result), I know how bad they can smell "the next day". Tap Room, Elbow Room, and Lager House (who had a smokers' funeral last gasp party hours before) all smelled better than my house. I don't know if it was the weather or a complete scrubbing, but these places didn't stink.
Obviously, not coughing or having to shower the instant I came home to destroy the smoke smell in my Robin-Williams-level hair was nice. Not having to keep an inhaler in the car was a plus too.
No one threw a nic fit or even mentioned the ban. Fatigue?
Downtown Ypsi looked like it was jumping. Smokers standing outside bars gave the impression that there was something interesting goin on inside. (For those who came to the Ghostlady, Glori5, JWPP show, hopefully there was.)
Not Awesome:
Apparently, smokers can't smoke on bar patios. This sucks, because if the smoke isn't enclosed it doesn't bother my lungs nearly as much, and smokers aren't even thrown a bone.
Piles of butts on the sidewalk. Though this problem is easily fixed with some creative butt containers.
The lingering opinion that it is a smoker's right to cancerize others in public enclosed spaces and this is all some kind of conspiracy to control people's personal lives. It's closer to dependency acting out than democracy moving out.
So far so good.